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435
Her Majesty's Mails
·
William Lewins
294
Many
gentlemen
who
did
not
arrange
to
have
private
bags
(at
a
great
yearly
expense)
were
compelled
to
make
frequent
journeys
to
the
town
to
ascertain
if
any
letters
had
arrived
for
them.
Some
letters
for
places
within
a
few
miles
of
the
town
would
be
known
to
be
at
the
office
for
days
and
weeks
unguessed
at,
till
perhaps
some
one
would
hear,
through
one
of
many
channels,
that
a
letter
was
lying
at
the
post-office
for
persons
of
their
acquaintance,
and
inform
them
of
the
fact.
Letter-delivering
in
the
rural
districts
was
then
a
private
concern,
and,
in
consequence,
those
letters
destined
for
one
particular
road
were
laid
aside
till
a
sufficient
number
were
accumulated
to
make
it
worth
while
to
convey
them
at
a
charge
of
a
penny
the
letter.[161]
Owing
to
the
wretched
system
then
in
force,
many
country
places
round
a
post-office
were,
to
all
intents
and
purposes,
more
remote
than
most
foreign
countries
are
at
this
hour.
One
letter-carrier
sufficing
for
the
wants
of
the
town,
we
need
scarcely
say
that
the
number
of
letters
received
was
exceedingly
small.
Not
more
than
a
hundred
letters
were
posted
or
delivered,
on
an
average,
each
day,
though
the
town
was
the
seat
of
many
brisk
manufactories,
and
was,
besides,
in
the
heart
of
the
colliery
districts.
Now,
a
single
firm
in
the
same
town
will
cause
a
greater
amount
of
daily
postal
business.
Our
purpose
will
not
allow
of
our
describing
all
the
attendant
circumstances
of
the
state
of
things
existing
at
this
early
period,
or
more
fully
than
we
have
already
done
the
postal
arrangements
of
the
past.
But
there
were
the
"expresses,"
which
ought
not
to
be
forgotten.
Designed
to
supply
some
sudden
emergency,
they
were
of
great
use
where
quick
intelligence
was
urgently
required.
For
this
purpose
they
might
be
had
from
the
post-office
people
at
any
hour,
and
generally
they
were
procured
through
the
night.
A
special
mounted
messenger
might
be
despatched,
under
this
arrangement,
with
a
single
letter,
marked
"Haste!
post
haste!"
carrying
with
him
a
way-bill,
to
account
for
the
time
it
had
taken
him
to
perform
the
journey.
The
charge
for
expresses
was
at
the
rate
of
a
shilling
a
mile,
the
speed
at
which
they
travelled
averaging
ten
miles
an
hour.
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